Service Learning at the Mukilteo Wildlife Monitoring

Figure 1. The stream found at the Big Gulch in Mukilteo. This stream was monitored by EdCC service learning in order to track the wildlife.

This event is a service learning project called Wildlife Monitoring. This event was three hours long, and took place at the Big Gulch in Mukilteo. Its coordinator is Grace Coale whose email is grace.coale@email.edcc.edu.

During this project we replaced the batteries of wildlife cameras in the area and acquired the SD cards from those cameras. We also searched for animal tracks and took pictures of them. This project is done to make sure that the wildlife in the area is stable and that the animals continue to come to the stream that is at this location. The cameras are motion-activated so through them we are able to track which animals came to the stream at what time. The goal of this event is to monitor the wildlife in the area and gauge their presence and activity. At this event, my duty was to search for animal tracks in the mud. There is a lot of animal activity near the stream, so we looked at the mud under the bridge that's over the stream to look for tracks.

In this course we learned to identify organisms based on molecular and morphological features. Similarly, during this project, we were able to look at animal tracks and identify the animal through the morphology of their feet as well as the nature of the environment. Certain animals were more likely to be near the stream in that area than others based on the environment.

This experience made me realize that it's very important for people to get involved in their community. The area we visited was extremely eroded, much like many other streams in Washington. This erosion initially started because of logging in the area. In order to work at fixing the mistakes we made toward our environment, we need to at least work toward improving our local ecosystems. 

Questions Raised:
1. Even if the wildlife monitoring showed decreased wildlife activity, what can we possibly do to help that?
2. If human interaction negatively affects the wildlife, what kind of selection would it be considered?
3. The motion-sensor cameras do not account for small animals, insects, or birds. They are important for the environment, so how can we track their activity in the area as well?
4. Human involvement ruins the environment for wildlife, but in what ways does it affect humans themselves?